
Gass. 
Book. 






BRIEF ABSTRACT OF REMARKS 



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REV. WM. B. HAYDEN, 



NEW JERUSALEM CTTTJRCH, 



JJuneal of the § tejsident, 



APRIL 19, 180, 




CINCINNATI: 

MALLORY, POWER .t CO., PRINTERS, 135 MAIN STREET. 
1865. 



A BRIEF ABSTRACT OF REMARKS 

1SY 

REV. W M . B. HAYDEN, 

OF THK NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH, 



rUNEKAL OF THE PRESIDE^ 

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Abraham Lincoln is not dead. lie is now even more 
alive than he was before the hand of the assassin had dis- 
missed him from the mortal frame. He is not here, where 
the hand of wicked men would have laid him: he is risen, 
and while we are speaking, gathered here to mourn hia 
loss and attend his obsequies, is rising, welcomed by angels, 
and conducted by them into a higher, better, and more sub- 
stantial world. 

There are two sides on which to view this lamentable 
event. As in the weeds of mourning which drape our city 
to-day, the white mingles with the black, so in the event, 
as morally viewed, there is light as well as darkness. 
There is a black side — the side of sin, and crime, and sor- 
row, the side of nature and the material world ; and the 
other, the side of a Divine Providence, of Heavenly truth, 
of immortal life and the spiritual world. 

Both aspects are useful. It will do us good to look at 
both sides of it. 

It is good to sorrow over such an event, to regret our 
own loss, to mourn for the blot it seems to cast on our na- 
tional honor, the state of society among us, our Christian 



[ 2 ] 

civilization, to condemn the crime and the criminal, to ab- 
hor the wicked disposition in which such crimes originate ; 
separating ourselves from it, setting our minds against it, 
and praying fervently to the Lord that He will deliver our 
own hearts and the hearts of our whole people from the 
indulgence of evil propensities, that can lead to such direful 
results. 

Afflictions will do us good if we make the right use of 
them ; if we look up to the Beneficent Hand that allows 
them to come, seeking His face, and departing from the 
evil. 

Such dispensations have their meaning, if only we can 
interpret them. The first impulse that the rational mind 
has, is to ask the question, What does it mean ? 

This question we cannot hope fully to answer. We can- 
not penetrate the secrets of the Divine' councils, nor read 
the march of future events ; but some of its lessons, may, 
not improperly, be suggested and improved. 

One thing for which it may be intended, may be to reveal 
to us the evil of evil ; to open before us one of the depths 
into which wrong dispositions, when unchecked, inevitably 
plunge a man before they have done with him ; to show us 
the malignity there is really concealed within the principle 
of wickedness ; and to display to what desperate lengths 
sinful tendencies are by their own nature calculated to lead 
men. 

It may have been allowed to come upon us thus suddenly, 
descending like a stroke of lightning, to give us a shock, 
and jog us out of a rut in which we are too apt or prone to 
run ; to break up the current of our intense worldliness, 
reminding us of a higher world, and a higher class of inter- 
ests. It is a forcible monition to stop a moment and consid- 
er ; reflecting upon what we are doing, our habits and 
courses of life. The whole event is one to inspire thought- 
fulness and seriousness. 

In reverting to its brighter side, and reviewing it in the 



[ s ] 

light of a permission of Divine Providence, we may be sure 
that it is intended for some great good to our country ; 
either for positive good, or for the prevention of some greater 
evil. 

Mr. Lincoln, in his office of Chief Magistrate, has carried 
us through an important crisis in our affairs ; such a furnace 
as the nation never passed through before. But with the 
cessation of the war a new point is reached. "We are on 
the eve of a new and a different crisis. The settlement of 
difficulties is now at hand. What is called reconstruction is 
the work and the process now to go on. To accomplish 
this successfully, new energies will be needed. An entirely 
different class of abilities will now be called into exercise 
from those which have boon required to carry us through 
the war. The nation was quite ready to trust Mr. Lin- 
coln with the supervision of this difficult task. But it may 
be, that had he been spared, he would have pursued too 
lenient a policy. "We put it hypothetical!}'. 

lie might have been disposed to do this. From the kind- 
ness of his heart ; from his readiness to hear and negotiate 
with the disaffected parties; and from his desire to concili- 
ate and restore peace, we know that he would have gone 
very far that way ; to the utmost verge of what was right 
and proper. And it may be, too, that he would have gone 
too far : too far for the permanent good of the nation : too 
far for the best interests of the cause of truth, justice, free- 
dom, and humanity. 

"We are to be forgiving. We are to be merciful. We are 
not to act from a principle of revenge. We are to receive 
back our Southern brethren into the Unioiijwith open arms, 
to the embrace of a cordial friendship. We are to desire 
for them the same constitutional protection and guaranties 
that we ourselves enjoy. And we are to accord them equal 
civil privileges and immunities. But for all these things 
we must have some corresponding guaranties in return. 
The relations are mutual. Our rightful conduct imposes 



[ 4 ] 

on them some duties in return. The obligations are strict- 
ly reciprocal. To be received back iu full confidence, they 
must really come. They must adhere to the Union with 
faithful performance. The repentance must be sincere. 
The change which transfers them from the side of rebellion 
to the side of the Government must not be outward and 
feigned; but internal, heart}', and real. There must be a 
change of purpose and intention. Otherwise, we cannot 
forgive them. How can we ? Even the Heavenly Father 
does not forgive without repentance. The willing father of 
the returning prodigal did not run forth to meet him and 
fall on his neck, until there was repentance, actual and 
sincere. 

If we treat them as though they had returned before they 
really have returned in intention and will, we only prolong 
our difficulties, doing no good to ourselves or to them either. 
It is no charity to the nation or to them, to be too hasty. 
There is such a thing as misplaced kindness, as unmerciful 
mercy. To do good to the evil, is to do evil to the good. 
And we cannot afford to grant them a peace that will still 
leave them with the purpose and the power to thwart and 
defeat the just designs of Government. "We must not leave 
in their hands the weapons with which they may still go 
around, and under the garb of submission and peace, aim 
their surer blows against the national life. 

The crisis demands, therefore, a strong arm and a firm 
hand. The pressure of force must not be let up too easily, 
or before safety is insured. This nation has endured enough) 
put forth enterprise enough, made sacrifices enough, to pur- 
chase a lasting peace. And this it must have. The demand 
of the present exigency is, permanent security for the fu- 
ture ; the unquestioned dominancy of all the great principles 
for which the nation has fought. And no class of disaffected 
men in the States that are returning, can be allowed to 
thrust their rails, or place their timbers across that iron 
track along which the car of the Government must now 



[ 5 ] 

begiu to move. We ought to be insured against every 
dangerous impediment. The common good, therefore, re- 
quires wise discrimination, and just circumspection in the 
process of permanent settlement. 

The calls of this occasion would hardly he properly met 
and discharged without a few words in relation to Mr. Lin- 
coln's character. And yet it is scarcely requisite that we 
dwell upon it more than a moment. I cannot tell you any- 
thing new concerning him. He is already better known to 
you all than any words of mine could make him; for his 
character, in all its leading features, is strikingly daguerreo- 
typed upon the public heart. It was one of his peculiari- 
ties that he impressed himself familiarly upon the minds 
of the people. Our other Presidents have been highly re- 
spected ; have been honored and admired for their genius, 
for their commanding abilities and distinguished position; 
but it was Mr. Lincoln's fortune to make the people feel 
that he was their president — that he was one of them — to a 
degree that none who had gone before him had done. He 
mingled with the masses on their own plane and level, in a 
way in which his predecessors have not done. So the pro- 
minent traits of his personal character are more clearly 
written on their memories. They seem to get nearer to him 
and he to them, than has been common in respect to other 
chief magistrates. 

Sincerity and intcgrit}- were his strong characteristics, 
i [onesty had passed into an agnomen of him. And so con- 
lident were the people that his meaning was right, that they 
remained quiet, and acquiesced in measures of administra- 
tion in trying hours, which, under other circumstances, 
might have launched us upon the sea of a further revolu- 
tion. 

His life in office affords a striking illustration of a doc- 
trine we are taught in the Writings of the Xew Jerusalem 
Church, namely : that under the Divine Providence there 
is an influx from the Spiritual World, flowing into every 



[ 6 ] 

public function or use in society ; a peculiar and specific set 
of influences, aiding the use, and favoring the right exercise 
of its duties, by those who are in it. The more a man 
acknowledges God in his work, and opens his mind up- 
wards towards Heaven, the more recipient does he become 
of those influences, and the more do they aid him in the 
execution of his office. 

Of this influence he seemed to be peculiar^ conscious; 
and it had a great effect in shaping his measures and mould- 
ing his public character. He tells us himself, that at the 
beginning of his administration he was not a religious man. 
He was morally honest and sincere; but he had not assumed 
for his guidance any distinctively religious principle — what 
may be termed piety towards God. But the circumstances 
in which he came to be placed during the early days of his 
administration wrought powerfully upon his mind. His 
convictions of an overruling Providence constantly strength- 
ened, while his duties, in their religious aspect, became all 
the time more distinctly clear. His mind became more 
opened 1 above, and he realized, in an increasing degree, the 
nearness and reality of heavenly things. Every new crisis 
of the war brought these things nearer to him. He felt how 
powerless he was as an individual, and how much he was in 
need of Divine assistance : and at last he could acknowledge 
his relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, as to one who was his 
Saviour, Sustainer, and Redeemer. These things come to us 
from his familiar conversations with his friends, repeatedly 
reported. 

His public documents indicate something of this history. 
There is an increase of spiritual acknowledgement in them ; 
his last inaugural embodying more of the elevation of sen- 
timent to the Divine Being and Divine Power than any- 
thing that had gone before it ; being filled with Christian 
sentiments, which called forth commendatory expressions 
from a large portion of the Foreign Press. 

Thus, we have been enabled to see, with the mind's eye, 



[ 7 ] 

the rays of the Spiritual Sun descending and abiding upon 
him in the execution of his duties of the chief magistracy, 
as plainly and as distinctiy as before now we have, with the 
outward eye, beheld the rays of the natural sun descend 
upon, and glance and glimmer around, the dome of the 
Capitol. And not inappropriately, we trust, there may be 
quoted with respect to him aud the terrible event which calls 
us together, those words which the great philosopher poet 
has put into the mouth of Macbeth in relation to Malcolm, 
the young king of Scotland, whom he, himself, was about to 
murder: — " He hath become his faculties so meek; hath 
made himself so clear in his great office, his virtues will 
plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against the deep dam- 
nation of his taking off." 

One word in relation to his career, as a public man, and 
a statesman. This was remarkable, and such as no other 
man among us ever had. With less of previous plan, and 
yet crowned with larger fulfillment than commonly falls 
to the lot of public men. lie was led through ways that 
were extraordinary, to results that were equally unforeseen 
and extraordinary. Divine Providence seemed to open 
gates before him as he went along, into ways that seemed 
contrary to all probability and all precedent. 

It so came that he stood before the people as the repre- 
sentative of certain ideas. In such a moment as this we 
have nothing to do with advocating the truth, or exposing 
any fallacies contained in those ideas; but simply to state 
them. They were, the supremacy of constitutional law in 
the methods of the government, the limitation of slavery, 
aud a consolidated Union. And he lived to see the tri- 
umphs of all these. 

When he was presented to the people as a candidate for 
the Presidency, it was strongly affirmed by his opponents 
everywhere that he would not be elected. But he was 
elected. Yet not so much by the votes of his friends, as 
by the divisions among his opponents. Consequently he 



[ 8 ] 

went into the Presidential chair, contrary to all precedent, 
with a majority of nearly a million of votes against him. 

After his election, when he left home for the seat of gov- 
ernment, it was declared that he should never reach the 
city of Washington alive. But he did reach it; and yet 
through perils, and in spite of dangers, which no President 
had been called upon to risk or encounter before him. 

Arrived at the seat of government, it was said that 
he should not be inaugurated. But he was inaugurated; 
yet amid the gathering of such a storm as never gathered 
and burst around the head of any chief magistrate before. 

When seated in the chair, it was loudly proclaimed that 
he should not be allowed to hold his capitol for two months. 
But he did hold it ; and yet under circumstances unparal- 
leled, perhaps, in the history of nations. Without an army 
or a navy. Without a regiment of force, or a single ship 
that he could bring under his immediate command. His 
communications with the North cut oft*, and an armed force 
from Virginia threatening instant invasion. Those who 
remember the " blue Monday" in Washington, in the spring 
of '61, with the day before and the day after, will recall all 
to mind. The President told a personal friend of mine, on 
the afternoon of that day, that he fully expected the gov- 
ern ment would all be taken prisoners, and that he himself 
would be hung. This shows the state of mind in which 
some of those days were passed. 

After it was found that he would hold the Capitol, it was 
maintained that he should never be the President of the 
United States; that he should exercise jurisdiction over 
only a portion of what had been the United States. But 
lie kept the great body of the Union together, and lived to 
see his authority recognized in some portion of every one 
of the States; to see the rebellion virtually suppressed, and 
the Hag of the Union floating again from the principal 
cities, inland and on the sea-coast. 

The programme of his life, therefore, may be said to have 



[ 9 ] 

been accomplished. The principles for which he stood have 
been realized. He lived to see them all triumphant : an 
extraordinary thing for a public man or a statesman : the 
vindication of the law, the breaking of the slave-power, 
the consolidation of the Union. He died just as the last 
event which insured their triumph had taken place; his 
task accomplished, his work done. As a public man and a 
statesman, the wheel of his fortune had made just one com- 
plete revolution, and then stopped. In his career, viewed 
as an historic biography, the hand of time had told in suc- 
cessive order all the preceding figures on the dial-plate of 
his destiny, and the hour of twelve had struck ! It was 
his high noon. 

Let us lay his ashes in the tomb, then, with sorrow and 
with rejoicing. With sorrow, that so great and good a man 
has fallen in so wicked a manner ; and with joy, that his 
record is so clear, that his destiny was so complete, and 
that his work and his example remain to us. 

A day or two ago the telegram came over the wires that 
his body had been embalmed, for convenience and preserva- 
tion. An unimportant fact this, and also insignificant, in 
itself considered. But after all is there not something 
really typical in it? Docs it not strikingly emblematize 
and set forth another embalming that was taking place ; a 
mental embalming, by which Abraham Lincoln was being 
laid away in a most enduring manner in the memory and 
hearts of the people ? 

Other nations will join us in this wail of mourniug. As 
the news of his cruel decease travels forth, the masses of 
earth's population will take it up, and pass it round the 
globe. He will be loved as the people's friend. He will 
be regarded by them as the martyr of universal emancipa- 
tion. As time rolls on, his weaknesses will fade out of 
view ; his errors and mistakes will be forgotten and for- 
given; the strong points of his character, and the great 
facts of his career will come forth into bolder and bolder 



[ io ] 

relief. At length history will present him as a massive and 
well-proportioned statue, on a lofty pedestal. And he will 
stand by the side of Washington, the father of his country, 
in the love, the veneration, and the esteem of his country- 
men. 



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